BEIJING: Australian listed MNC Media Investment Ltd (“MNCMI” or “the Group”), a provider of media and entertainment content and services in key strategic markets in Asia, has achieved record sales of US$42.4 million in 1HFY2015.
This is an almost 82% jump from its revenue of US$23.3 million in 1HFY2014.
The Group’s turnaround was powered largely by its focus on two high-growth sectors — mobile games and social-e-commerce in China.
Hary Tanosoedibjo, Chairman and CEO of the Group said, “Group revenue for the first half of this year is more than 70% of what we achieved for the full year in FY2014. This surge in sales reflects the strong growth of our digital businesses in our key market — China.
“Our mobile games sales leapt 74% with the continued success of Boonie Bears 1 (“BB1”) and the successful launch of our second version of Boonie Bears (“BB2”) and our other popular games Armoured Warriors, which drew robust response. As of end July, we have a total of 248 million downloads for BB1 and BB2. Armoured Warriors achieved 81 million downloads even though it was only launched in September last year.
“Our social e-commerce business in China, has also done well as our flagship, proprietary parenting and family oriented portal — Fumubang and edutainment segment grew its base of active users, from 0.7 million users in January to 1.25 million users by end of July. All the visitors for Fumubang access it via their mobile devices. The main area of growth is in the area of curated family travel. The revenue for this segment rose by 1,052% compared to the corresponding period last year- mirroring the strong surge in online travel in China.
“The record numbers delivered by both the Group’s mobile games business as well as Fumubang in China offer clear-cut proof that the digital space is the next growth frontier for us.”
Even as the overall sales climate softens along with the weaker Chinese economy, online sales in the world’s largest digital marketplace are growing at an annual clip of 25% (Source: Forbes – 21Jan 2015).
“It is also found that among the major trends is the Chinese consumers’ attraction to mobile commerce. Nearly 80% of Chinese consumers who bought online last year made at least one purchase from a smartphone; 20% are weekly mobile shoppers. China is expected to lead the world in mobile commerce too. These trends augur well for us — as we continue to establish strong roots in mobile commerce in this huge market and are hence well-positioned to leverage on this enormous growth trajectory,” added Mr. Tanosoedibjo.
